This invention relates to methods for reducing body fat stores in vertebrate animals by administering to the animal an agent to suppress its prolactin secretion. The reduction in body fat stores can be accompanied with or without significant weight loss dependent upon the dosage received by the animal.
A method for reducing body fat stores accompanied by significant weight loss is valuable as a treatment for obesity in animals and humans which have attained undesirable and/or unhealthy body weights. Further, a method for reducing body fat stores without causing significant weight loss would be valuable to the livestock industry as a better grade of meat could be obtained without a concomitant lowering of the price paid per animal due to weight loss. In humans, such a method would be valuable to athletes who strive to obtain a low percentage of body fat without a loss in muscle mass.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide such methods.